It’s Never Too Late!

The other day I was reading in the book of Joel.  I came across a verse that most of us are familiar with: “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2:25).  God promises further in this chapter:

I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations.  (Joel 2:19).

You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.
Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the LORD your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.  (Joel 2:26, 27).

The Holy Spirit had me stop and meditate on the context of these promises.  He revealed something to me that had totally escaped me before.

The first chapter of Joel recounts the lack, misery, and trouble visited upon God’s people as a result of their disobedience to God.  God’s people had gotten into sin, turned away from Him, and tried to live life without acknowledging Him as the source of all the good in their lives.

In the second chapter of Joel, God calls out to His people to return to Him with all their heart.  If they would, He promised to change their situation and bless them as recounted in verses 19, 26, and 27.  Really not so surprising as there are so many promises in the Word of God that if we walk closely with Him, giving Him our whole heart, He will consider it His duty to care for us, financially, physically, mentally, etc...  But then there is verse 25 speaking of repayment.

One would think that if God is repaying someone as stated in verse 25, they must have been owed something.  Surely, the individuals to whom He would repay must have been wrongly deprived of something.  But as stated above, this is not the context of the book of Joel.  God’s people had wronged God.  They deserved to lose everything.  But even despite this, God promised that if they would turn back to Him with their whole heart, He would restore to them what they had lost as a result of their own bad decisions.  He would repay them for what the locusts had eaten.

Return to the LORD your God,
   for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
   and he relents from sending calamity.  Joel 2:13

I want to encourage you today.  Even if you have disobeyed God or missed his direction in any area of your life, and, as a result, you feel that you have lost out on opportunities, provision, time, relationships, or health, it is not over for you.  God never disqualifies us.  God never writes us off.  Do as God told His people to do.  Return to Him with your whole heart, cry out to Him, and He will restore what you have lost and then some.  Nothing you’ve done is beyond the mercy of God.  It’s never too late.  Your best days are not behind you.  The best is yet to come!